Bush calls for higher product safety standards, stronger penalties

In a bid to ensure better consumer-product safety, U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday announced a series of initiatives including broader federal recall powers and a strict certification system.

Bush's recommendations are based on proposals put together by a panel headed by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. The initiatives include the following:

• Empower the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ensure that manufacturers of high-risk foods meet U.S. certification standards.
• Authorize the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to order mandatory recalls of products.
• Post customs inspectors, border patrol inspectors and Consumer Product Safety Commission investigators in foreign countries to block the import of unsafe products into the United States
• Provide certification seals to companies that have a strong safety record.
• Issue stronger penalties to companies that breach safety standards.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has faced serious scrutiny in recent months owing to a spate of recalls involving toys manufactured in China.

"We need to do more to ensure that American families have confidence in what they find on our store shelves," Bush said Tuesday.

"They have the right to expect the food they eat, the medicines they take or the toys they buy for their children to be safe."

The U.S. imported about $2 trillion worth of goods in 2006, Bush said.

"And the vast majority of these imports are safe," Bush said. "Unfortunately, in recent months, Americans have seen imports from toys to toothpaste to pet food recalled because of safety concerns."

The U.S. Senate's commerce committee approved legislation last Tuesday that would increase funding to the safety commission and expand the powers of the federal agency. Nancy A. Nord, thecommission's acting chairwoman, said she was troubled by some aspects of the legislation, spurring Democrats in Congress to call for her resignation.

Canadian Health Minister Tony Clement has acknowledged Canada's regulatory system needs to be modernized and is conducting a review of its standards and regulations. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has the power to force a recall but Health Canada does not.